Royal Blood talks chaos, cacti and fleshing out its set list before playing the Forum in Inglewood

English rock duo Royal Blood (drummer Ben Thatcher, left, and bassist Mike Kerr) will open for Palm Desert rock band Queens of the Stone Age on Saturday, Feb. 17 at the Forum in Inglewood. (Photo courtesy of Royal Blood)

The past four years have been a fantastically successful blur for bassist Mike Kerr and drummer Ben Thatcher of the English rock duo Royal Blood. The pair formed in 2013 and hit the ground running following the release of their self-titled major label debut in 2014. The record, featuring the singles “Figure It Out” and “Come On Over,” topped the rock charts in both the U.S. and the U.K. and helped get the band on board at several major music festivals.

Royal Blood’s first festival experience was the Glastonbury Festival in England in 2014. The iconic five-day cultural gathering currently draws up to 175,000 people and Kerr described the moment as being simply “terrifying.”

“Terrifying sums it up,” he said during a recent phone interview. “As time has gone on, we’ve just gotten way more arrogant, so now we’re fine. Now we’re like, ‘We’re the best!’ So, we’re fine.”

It helps that both Kerr and Thatcher have a good sense of humor and that they take the music – and not so much themselves – seriously. Despite the cockiness of his commentary, Kerr said that both he and Thatcher are grateful that rock bands and icons such as Foo Fighters, Arctic Monkeys, Iggy Pop and Queens of the Stone Age have taken notice of their music.

“I think before you go on tour with a band, even if you like each other’s music, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get on very well,” Kerr said of getting paired up with QOTSA last year. “When we first met Queens, I don’t think we had even started the tour yet and we got on like a house on fire. They’re just a really nice group of people and they went above and beyond to make us feel very welcome on their stage. We also drank a crazy amount of tequila. Like, it was nuts.”

In the past, Kerr had cited QOTSA, and specifically the Palm Desert-based band’s frontman, Josh Homme, as a big influence on his playing and singing. He’s also glad that the bands share a similar sense of humor and he gets a kick out of the slew of cactus plants – presumably “gifts” from QOTSA – that have suddenly appeared on their bus during this tour.

“They just keep popping up everywhere,” he noted.

Kerr said he also remains humbled by the fact that some of his heroes, like Homme and Foo frontman Dave Grohl, have taken Royal Blood under their wing.

“I would have the same amount of respect for them as musicians even if they didn’t like what we do,” he said. “It’s definitely a big deal to us that they support what we do and they’re encouraging of it as well. It’s pretty sweet and I’m not complaining.”

For a two-piece, Royal Blood makes a lot of noise. The gritty, bluesy, garage-rock style sounds ginormous, even in big venues and sprawling outdoor amphitheaters. Yet, with just the two of them on the stage, a feeling of intimacy remains intact. Its sound definitely draws people in, especially with the inclusion of cuts off of its sophomore release, “How Did We Get So Dark?,” which dropped back in June.

After experiencing a breakup, Kerr entered the studio with a lot of fresh feelings and he let them all bleed out via songs like “Lights Out,” “I Only Lie When I Love You” and “Hook, Line & Sinker.” Fans and critics picked up on and commented on some subtle additions to the music, including the cowbell in “I Only Lie When I Love You” and the keyboards in “Hole in Your Heart.”

“We’ve never made music based on customer feedback,” Kerr said, addressing specifically the fan comments and overall demand for “more cowbell” in “I Only Lie When I Love You,” referencing he old “Saturday Night Live” skit featuring Christopher Walken.

“This is one minor complaint – so they spoke and we listened,” he continued and joked that the next Royal Blood record may just be “all cowbell and keyboards.”

While out on tour with the new music, Kerr said fans have responded well to the fresh material and that once they finally added the album title track into the setlist, the shows felt more complete.

“We didn’t put it in until quite later on and when we started playing it, we immediately regretted not playing it straight away,” he said of the biting rock track, “How Did We Get So Dark?” “I don’t know why, it just feels really good.”

As the band continues to rack up the milestones – from playing major festivals such as the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio and the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee to winning multiple NME, Kerrang! and Brit Awards trophies – Kerr said he’s happy to not have to experience all of the craziness and accolades solo. Kerr and Thatcher met when they were just 15-years-old and now that the duo are both 27, Kerr said despite the massive amount of time they’ve spent on the road, they’re not sick of each other, but rather “sick on each other.”

“When you experience something special or crazy, it’s always better when there’s someone to share it and you don’t feel alone,” he said. “I can’t imagine what it’s like being a pop star and having the world implode around you and there’s no one there to understand it. I definitely feel very lucky that I have a friend next to me who is going through the same chaos. I realize that makes it sound like it’s so difficult, but it’s not. It’s basically just one giant (good time).”